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Wednesday, 30 December 2015

I am participating in Julia Child challenge organised by "COOKING THE CHEF ", hence the last couple of weeks Julia Child was quite present in my life. It was quite an experience to watch her videos, which were very educative but also very very amusing. I firstly got to know about Julia Child couple of years ago, when I watched the movie "Julie & Julia". After the movie French cooking became even more interesting, which till then seems to be quite complex and difficult. As Julia Child would always say, French cooking does not have to be scary at all...you shall just try it till you will get to perfection. I truly believe this, not wanted to say that the recipes are all simple and quick to make, but with some practise you will get there and will be very pleased with the outcome. Today I am going to share the famous Julia Child VIP cake (Cake Le Brantome - walnut cake). She calls it VIP cake, as this cake is quite special and should be served for special guests and with Champagne when it comes to Julia Child (Please check for video here). I served the cake for my very special boys (my husband and son), without the Champagne thought and do understand now, why she named it the VIP cake. There is a lot of beating and folding involved, I have to admit that, but the outcome is just heaven. Being such a success with my boys, I made another cake for yesterday´s family getting together and did certainly get the expected reaction. It was a big success and this cake will be certainly done for many other occasions in our family in the future.

Brandy Butter Filling

1 large egg

3 tablespoons brandy, cognac or Armagnac

8 tablespoons soft unsalted butter, in all

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

200 g sugar

Pinch of salt

Beat the egg, brandy, 2 tablespoons of the butter, cornstarch and sugar together in a small saucepan. Set the pan over medium heat and bring to boil stirring constantly. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Take the saucepan off the heat and whisk in the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter (spoon wise). Cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate till cooled down (overnight).

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and flour your baking form. Start beating the eggs, gradually adding the sugar. Beat on a high speed for at least 5 minutes, till the mixture have doubled in size and is pale in the colour, mix in salt and vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk the double cream till you will get soft peaks...it should be the same consistency as the egg-sugar mixture, do not over beat the cream. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add about a quarter of flour to the egg-sugar mixture and fold it in carefully with a large spatula. Add another quarter of the flour and process as before. Put some tablespoons of grounded walnuts aside, which you will use later for decorating. Now add the whipped cream and about 1/3 of the grounded walnuts, repeat the folding steps till all dry ingredients are used. Be gentle with the folding, trying not to break to much air of the egg-sugar mixture. At this point you can either divide the batter in two baking pans (as originally done) or put it all at once in one baking pan (as I did). If you are going to use 2 pans, bake the cake about 25 minutes, if you are using all the batter at once it will take about 35-40 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and let it rest for at least 10 minutes at the cooling rack. Take the cake out of the baking pan and let it cool completely.

Icing sugar frosting

5-6 tablespoons powdered sugar

egg white

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat till all well combined, with soft peaks and being shiny.

Assembling the cake: Cut the cake in 2 or 3 equally layers if you bake the cake in one baking pan (my cake went up quite significantly so I could cut the cake in 3 layers). Spread a good amount of the brandy butter filling on the first layer and top it with the second one (do the same step if you have 3 layers). Cover the top layer with icing sugar frosting. Now you can use apricot jam glaze (heat up some tablespoons of apricot jam with water and let is bubble away for 1 or 2 minutes) or you use the remaining brandy butter filling (as I did) to glaze the sides of the cake to be able to stick the grounded walnuts on it. Finally decorate the cake with some chocolate sprinkles.

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Today I would simple like to wish you Merry Christmas and a wonderfull and relaxing time with your family and friends. Have fun with your kids, who makes Christmas worthwhile again, have nice conversations with your parents and relatives remembering nice time while enjoying delicious hot chocolate, mulled wine and some Christmas cookies or cake. Remember the once who are not able to be with you these days in your thoughts and your heart. Relax, enjoy and be happy... I sure will!!!

Sunday, 20 December 2015

Every time we are in Sweden, I am changing something on my blog... I always feel inspired of doing something new and different. This time it is not different, now you can enjoy my blog in a new design. The inspiration is coming mostly from the fact that I am having quite some time of being creative and of course the changed environment with so many new impressions and moments, that I need to hold myself of not overdoing it...

The overload of inspirations does not only applies for the blog layout, it does also swap over to baking, cooking and decorating.... this mostly of the fact that I do love going shopping in Sweden a lot, don´t get me wrong I like to go shopping in Spain too, but when we are in Sweden I am getting different kind of ingredients which gives me the option to try new recipes and be creative in the kitchen.

Today, still being in the Christmas mood (the big day is coming soon) I am going to share with you a recipe of my Glühwein Kuchen "Mulled wine cake" which is just perfect for this time of the year. On top something which is it not really a German or Swedish tradition a recipe of a chocolate eggnog, which I wanted to make as I just bought those gorgeous drinking jars, which needed to be used and photo shooted immediately.

Glühwein cake

250 g butter softened

250 g sugar

3 eggs

200 g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon cacao powder

3 hand full cranberries

50 g chocolate sprinkles

120 ml Glühwein (Glög, mulled wine)

some powder sugar

1-2 tablespoons mulled wine

Preheat your oven to 180C. In a mixing bowl mix together butter and sugar, till fluffy and light in colour. Add the eggs, one at the time, combined everything together. Sift the flour, baking powder and cacao powder and add alternately to the butter egg mixture with the mulled wine...starting and finishing with flour. Mix all together. Chop roughly the cranberries, put some aside for the later decoration, put the cranberries along with the chocolate sprinkles to the batter. Combine with a spatula. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured bundt cake baking form and bake for about 45 min (make the stick test). Take the form out of the oven and let it rest for at least 10 min on a cooling rack. In a small bowl mix together some powdered sugar and mulled wine (not too much) till you will get a think (bit runny) sugar glaze... Pour the glaze over the cake and sprinkle with some of the cranberries....

Chocolate eggnog

1 l whole milk

100 g sugar

50 g dark chocolate melted

2 tablespoons cacao powder

5 eggs

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon grounded nutmeg

1/5 teaspoon grounded cardamom

Cognac

Separate the egg white and egg yolk. Pour the milk into a saucepan add cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom and bring it to simmer and cook it on low heat for couple of minutes (watch the milk for overcooking). Mix the egg yolks with sugar, melted and cooled chocolate and cacao powder till all well combined. Add the cooked milk spoon wise to the mixture, till at least one third has been combined, then pour the rest and mix quickly. Beat the egg white till stiff peaks start to form. Pour the chocolate mixture over it and mix till all well combined. Let is chill... Add some cognac (as much or as less as you want) before serving. The eggnog can be enjoyed warm or cold....

Are you getting cold too, we are bit freezy... it is chily these days in Sweden, even so Swedish people would tell us that the tempretures are quite high for this time of the year.... which does not help the fact that we are freezing. Both recipes are just perfect to get warm and very nice to be shared with some friends or family who are coming for visit...

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Yesterday I was looking for a baking pan, going through all the kitchen supplies my mother in law owns. I did not find the baking pan I was looking for, but I did find something far more exciting.... an ancient waffle cookie iron. The one they do not produce these days anymore, the one with this special character we will never find in any of this new fancy kitchen devices, the one which brings you back to the past and challenge your creativity, as you immediately start to think what kind of delicious treats you would like to make with this. I was beyond my happiness and could not wait for the fun and creativity to begin.

It is some time now I wanted to try my own Spekulatius cookies (German / Dutch spiced Christmas cookies), but I never got a change, as I do not have the spekulatius molds, which you would need to make the cookies. Of course you can use the standard cookie cutters for them too, but I always knew them with this special pattern and this was the way I always wanted them to make. Today I got finally my chance, using my exciting discovery kitchen device for making the cookies. Yes, yes I know this is actually a waffle iron, but I felt so in love with the pattern of this waffle iron, which I could vividly see on my Spekulatius cookies, so I could not resist to miss-use this special kitchen device to fulfil my dreams. And so I used this waffle iron to put the pattern on my cookies, by pressing the rolled out dough in between...

The outcome was as adorable as the ancient waffle iron itself. I have to admit it took some more time, as you usually would need to make cookies... but it is really worth the effort. I really enjoyed the whole process, taking my time to create something special, something we would not have everyday, something super adorable and which makes a really special Christmas souviner to bring with, these days when you are visiting your family or friends. Buy a nice bottle of Glög / Glühwein / mulled wine and your presents becomes even more special, the spices are going very well with this warm wine drink complementing each other perfectly. And as its starts to get cold outside, we start appriciate the warm wine more and more. The cookies are going perfect with hot chocolate too, this combination will make every kids face smile for sure.

Spekulatius cookies

100 g softened butter

100 g brown sugar

2 teaspoons grounded cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cardamom (or cloves)

1/4 teaspoon grounded nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

good pinch of salt

2-3 tablespoon milk

200 g flour

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix it all together till a firm ball of dough will formed. Add more milk or flour if your dough appears too dry or too wet. The dough should be rather tense and not sticking to your hands. Wrap the dough in a wrapping foil and let is cool for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. Take the dough out, roll it out and continue to put the pattern on it (either like me using a waffle iron or using the actual spekulatius cookie molds), of course you can always use your cookie cutters to cut the cookies in different shapes. Bake for 10-15 min till cookies are golden brown. The cookies should be rather crisps. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let the cookies getting cooled leaving them on the baking sheet.

Please note that if you are putting pattern on the cookies, to make sure the pattern are not disappearing during the baking process, the dough should be very very cold. I actually prepared my cookies and popped them into the freezer for about 10-20 min, before baking them.

On top to all the nice kitchen devices my mother in law has, which I personally enjoy a lot, we do also enjoy the Swedish country side...with phenomenal sunrises and special guest who are visiting us early in the morning....

Saturday, 12 December 2015

Lately I have been busy crafting Christmas decoration for our home, hence our home is not only filled with Christmas spices, cookies and cakes, but also with tons of crafting material occupying our whole living room. Today on the blog, Christmas tree decoration for your home, Christmas tree mini cakes to surprise your friends on a spontaneous afternoon tea invitation and additional Christmas cookies recipes worth to be tried....

There is not much you would need to craft the Christmas tree, neither for crafting material nor for crafting skills. The tree can be done together with kids, as it is easy to be made and everybody can show their own creative side. My son was helping me to bring the decoration on the tree (the small round shiny circles you can see on the pictures). Telling me which colour goes next and where exactly I should glue it on.

1 sheet green sponge paper (with or without glitter) - normal carton paper will work as good as the sponge one

any decoration you would like to have on your tree

glue gun

foot stand: can be either done yourself or bought (I crafted mine myself)

Cut a square out of the paper as big or as small as you would like to have your Christmas tree to be, roll it to a cone and glue it together. Decorate the cone with the decorative band (around the tree), glue on both ends. Now glue your decoration all over the tree, as much or as less as you want. Cut a small star out of the sponge paper and glue it on the top of the tree. Finally put your decorated cone on the top of the food stand...which can be decorated with some small gift parcels on the foot.

The tree is following us all over the house.....is used as a prop for my photo shoots, as decoration on dinner table or as deco on the dresser....

To continue on the Christmas tree trip, here another idea how you can put the Christmas tree in scene over the festive period. The other day we got a spontaneous invitation from our friends we have not been managed to see for a while. We decided to meet up for the afternoon tea and I insisted to bring something with. As most of the time (I somehow seem to be very busy with so many things at once) something quick and easy was required. I used my imagination, remembered what most people do like, thought about my success recipes and came up with vanilla sponge and cream cheese frosting mini cakes....and since we are all about Christmas these days, I decided to do them as small Christmas trees....

Mini Christmas tree cakes

3 eggs

90 g sugar

90 g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 fresh vanilla pod

Preheat the oven to 180C. Beat the eggs, vanilla seeds and sugar till doubled in size and pale in the colour (use your electrical hand mixer or stand mixer). Sift flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg sugar mixture with a spatula, don´t beat it, try to keep the volume. Pour the batter on a baking sheet, smooth it a bit out and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let the biscuit cool, take three different size of cookie cutter and cut round circle (your cake tree will have 3 biscuit levels at the end).

Prepare the frosting...check for recipe HERE or HERE...add some green food colouring to it. Assembling the cakes: take the biggest biscuit circle and frost it with some of the cream cheese frosting (using a piping bag). Top it with the middle size circle and frost it on top too. Cover with the smallest circle and pipe an frosting star on it. Decorate with some sugar sprinkle.

Moving on to the next Christmas cookie recipes. This time something chocolaty and something fruity, using the same technique and same basic shortcrust dough. The cookies will be spiced up and filled differently, so you will get two kinds of cookies with the same basic dough. And the best about this cookies is (as always) the dough can be frozen after the preparation and stored in the freezer for couple of month...you can use just one part of it, if you are graving for Christmas cookies, the rest can go back to freezer and used in later stage. Now...should you get some surprising guest over the festive period, I would urge you to prepare some of the dough rolls and store it in the freezer....that way you can always delight your guest with super dupper Christmas cookies with no effort at all....

Chocolate nutella cookies

50 g powdered sugar

100 g butter

150 g flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cacao powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

chopped hazelnuts

nutella

Put powdered sugar, butter, flour, cacao powder and baking powder in a food processor and give it couple of spins, so everything is well mixed. Add the eggs and blitz it till a firm ball of dough will form (add a spoon of milk if dough appears to be too dry). Take the dough and roll it out to a square. Spread 2 tablespoons of nutella over the dough (not too think) and sprinkle one part of the chopped hazelnuts all over. Start rolling the dough together (always starting with the longest side of the square). Spread additional chopped nuts on your rolling board and roll your dough roll over it, making sure it it all covered with hazelnuts. Now wrap the role in a plastic wrap and pop it into the freezer for 20-30 min. Preheat the oven to 180C. Take out the cookie dough roll out of the freezer and cut it in slices (about half of centimetre). Place the cookies at the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 mins.

Cardamom marzipan cherry cookies

50 g powdered sugar

100 g butter

150 g flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

50 g marzipan

2-3 tablespoons cherry marmalade

50 g powdered sugar

Prepare the dough the same way as described above (leave out marzipan and marmalade). Put marzipan, marmalade and powdered sugar into the blender and blend everything till you will get a think fruity paste. Spread the paste over the rolled out dough square, then roll it together, wrap it and put it into the freezer for 20-30 min. Continue as described above.

Sunday, 6 December 2015

Christmas is upon us. Today I am going to share with you a Christmas decoration tutorial and two Christmas cookies recipes.

Last weekend a dear friend (Gregous Food) was visiting us for a brunch invitation and surprised me with an amazing etagere. I do not know exactly what kind of magic etagere do have, but I am always fascinated by them and always eager to buy more of them. I have already couple of them home, but the one I got last weekend was a missing master piece in my collection. Etagere can be used for anything, not only for displaying cookies or cupcakes. They are a great asset on the table, decorating it with a certain elegance and style.

As said, they can be used for anything and so I decided to use my new favourite etagere to decorate our house a bit for Christmas. There is not much you need to bring a bit of Christmas spirit to you home....one dear friend who surprises you with an etagere, some fresh fir-branches, bit of Christmas decoration, fir cones and candles (check here for DIY tutorial) and voila your home is filled with nice smell of forest coming from the fresh fir branches and relaxing light from the candles, creating enchanting Christmas atmosphere in your home....

Lemon shooting star cookies

50 g sugar

100 g butter

150 g flour

half teaspoon baking powder

zest and juice of 1 lemon

coarse sugar

Put all the ingredients, except coarse sugar, in a food processor and blitz till a ball of dough will form. Add bit more flour if dough appears to be too wet, or a teaspoon of milk if the dough appears to be too dry. Wrap the dough in a wrapping foil and put it in the refrigerator for couple of hours. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Roll out the dough and cut out the cookies (any shape you want). Brush the cookies with an egg white and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 8-10 min, till the edges starts to get brown.

Vanilla shortcrust cookies filled with jam

100 g sugar

vanilla sugar

200 g butter

300 g flour

1 egg

marmalade

powdered sugar

Put sugar, butter, flour and egg into the food processor and blitz till ball of dough will form (if you have rather a smaller food processor as I do, then do it in 2 bunches). Wrap the dough in a wrapping foil and put it for couple of hours into the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll the dough out and cut the cookies with a round cookie cutter out. With a smaller cutter, cut additional circle (or any other shape) in half of the cookies, as you will put two cookies together in a later stage. Bake the cookies for 5-7 minutes, till the edges starts to brown. Let the cookies cool. Put some marmalade on a (whole) cookie then put the cookie with the hole on top. Dust the cookies with powdered sugar.

Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Some days are short of hours, with almost empty refrigerator and very little desire to go out for grocery shopping. All good reasons to get creative using all what´s left home to create something nice for dinner. Recently I had such a day. The outcome was great success and according to my husband definitely something to be shared on the blog. So here we go... butternut squash & chickpeas curry for main course and Christmas cookies for dessert...

Speaking about Christmas cookies...Christmas cookies have a big tradition in our family, I will bake tons of them over the Christmas period, usually with some friends and our kids. Over the next couple of days I am going to share some of my favourite Christmas cookies recipes with you. Most of them are very easy to make and are just perfect to be brought as a present. People would always appriciate that nice gesture, let´s face it...what is better than homemade cookies.

Butternut squash & Chickpeas curry

1/2 butternut squash

1 glass chickpeas (precooked)

1 onion

1 can coconut milk

1-2 teaspoon red curry paste

salt, oil (neutral)

Skin the pumpkin and cut it in cubes. Cut the onion in small cubes too. Put some neutral oil into the wok pan and add the onions, saute them for a minute, then add pumpkin and season with some salt. Reduce the heat to medium / high and let is cook for 6-7 minute, make sure pumpkin is not getting burned. Add coconut milk and red curry paste (if you want to have it a bit more spicy add more) and let the curry bubble away for additional 6-7 minutes. Check the pumpkin, if it is almost cooked trough, add the chickpeas (strain it before) and let is cook for additional couple of minutes. Serve the curry with some fresh coriander on top and basmati rice.

Cranberry shortbread cookies

100 g butter

50 sugar

vanilla sugar

150 g flour

100 g dried cranberries

1 small egg

Blitz dried cranberries in the food processor for couple of seconds. Take them out and put them aside. Put all the remaining ingredients into the food processor and blitz till you will get a firm ball of dough (put more flour if dough appears to wet). The dough shall not stick to you hands. Take it out, add the cranberries and knead till all well combined. Roll out a dough role, wrap it in a wrapping foil and put it in to the freezer for about 20 min. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Take the dough out and cut the cookies. Bake for about 10-12 min, til edges starts to brown. Let the cookies cool on the cooling rack. This cookies can be stored in a airtight container for several weeks.

Cardamom cookies

80 g butter

40 sugar

vanilla sugar

1/2 tablespoon brown rum

1/2 teaspoon grounded cardamom

pinch of salt

125 g flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Put all ingredients in the food processor and blitz till a dough ball will form. Take the dough out and pop it into the refrigiator for couple of hours. Preahet the oven to 180C. Roll a finger-think dough role and cut it in 2-3 cm long pieces. Flatt each dough piece with a forge and bake it for 10-12 min. Let the cookies cool before serving. This cookies can be stored in a airtight container for several weeks.